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Tag Archives: Happiness

A lot can happen in a year. Regardless of what that “a lot” is, one thing remains transcendentally true: change occurs. Most of the time, we don’t always notice it happening until we stop to take a look around and realize that our lives are completely different.

I’m serious. What was your life like a year ago? Different, right? If your answer is no, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re doing something wrong.

Change – good or bad – is to be embraced. Anyone who knows me decently well can vouch for me when I say that 2013 was arguably the worst year of my life – and drunk me made sure everyone knew that on New Year’s Eve. My conversations with a few random U Penn students went something like this:

Random Drunk Guy/ Girl: “Got any New Years Resolutions?”Me: “TO MAKE THIS YEAR LESS SHITTY THAN LAST YEAR!”

Random Drunk Guy/ Girl: “What’s your favorite memory from 2013?”Me: “TONIGHT BECAUSE THIS YEAR WAS THE WORST YEAR OF MY LIFE AND I’M GLAD IT’S FUCKING OVER!”

… I’m sure you get the picture. And although last year was pretty shitty, it taught me something about myself that undoubtedly needs to be worked on: the acceptance of change. Life goes on – and continues to change – whether we like it or not. The more you resist change, the less happy you will be. The more you embrace it, the happier you will be. See the correlation?

“You must be shapeless; formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” –Bruce Lee

I can wholeheartedly say I hated 2013 because so much change occurred in my personal life that I wasn’t necessarily prepared for. My mom was in and out of the hospital with cancer treatments, my classes began to conflict with my personal interests and frustrate me, the guy I was head over heels for graduated and moved away, my personal views began to change… the list goes on and on. I tried as hard as I could to resist ignore these changes, and in consequence, slowly began to lose my motivation and passion for life. I also overlooked all of the things that I did have going for me, like falling in love with my major, joining a THON committee, and making a ton of new friends.

The key to dealing with change is approaching it with a positive attitude and growing with it. When life throws you a curve ball, is there anything you can do about the situation? Yeah? Then why worry? In that same light, if you can’t do anything about the situation, why worry?

So as drunk me professed to 1/3 of the University of Pennsylvania on New Years eve, this year will be different. This year is going to be as amazing as I can possibly make it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life; I’m excited to see what this year has in store.